OK so I actually experienced it first hand.

My friend has a VRod and he wanted me to come along on a ride organized by a big Harley dealership. Free breakfast, amotorcycleride, free BBQ and a band. I'm there!

A big turnout, about 150 bikes or so. 95% Harleys or custom choppers, the rest were comprised of metric cruisers, Ducatis, Goldwings, & my BMW.

The dealership is a huge impressive lookingHarleydealership.The inside is exquistite andbeautifully doneand looks more like a high line car dealership which isn't surprising because the demograpics are probably the same people that buy Acuras, Lexus, BMW, & M/B.

The riders were in general very nice people, mostly in their 50s & 60s. I told my friend(he's in his early 20s) that they look like his grandparents. Not one made any comments about the other non-Harley bikes(that I heard of). I was a couple of rows behind pole position when the ride started. The guy in front of me was a elderly gentleman in a wife beater shirt. He had ape hangers well above his shoulders and at a stop you can see hissuper baggy ticeps shakin' & flappin' from the vibration of the throbbing V-Twin. [&:]I realized thenthat some people should not wear tank tops.[:'(]

Now these guys ride slooooow. That's fine. I was not expecting the pace of my sportbike riding friends. However some of the manuevers I was a little taken back. Unlike other type of riders, these guys ride in the slow lane(right) on the superslab. At every entrance, they refused to let any cars merge in and cars had to dangersously come to afull stop in the merging lanewhileour whole pack went by. Also when cars in the middle lane tried to merge right to get ready to get off an exit, the same thing, they refused to let anyone merge in and resulted in driver's making dangerous manueversso they can go on their way.

When wewere getting off the highway, they sloweddown so much at the tightturn of the off ramp that the riders in thelatter half were at a halt in the middle of the highway!And once we were in the streets, these guys runred lights and stop signs to keep the pack togetherlikewere are a Presidential Funeral procession! Needless tosay, this pissed off a lot of drivers and the group eventually got split up into a few. The ride actually became more pleasant when the group got smaller.

All in all I had a good time. A slow bike ride is better than no bike ride anyday. After the ride,I rode with my friend and I let him lead the way on his VRod. Imust say, I prefered his pace much better. Would I do it again? Why not? Itwas certainly different and any excuse to ride is a good one!

 

FM, I still don't like the HD "pack" mentality - riding through red lights, disobeying traffic laws and pissing off other drivers. IMO - I would rather not ride than be a part of that shallow and self-centered "attitude" style of riding. Peace brother!

 

Yeah I agree. At some points, I was ashamed to be part of this group because of their utter lack of respect of others on the road. Although nobody did it to us and I don't condone such behavior,I can see why some guys on sport bikes blast past them doing a stand up wheelie to show them up.Mostnon-Harley motorcyclists riding by usdidglance at us like and was like, dudes, learn how to ride....

At one intersection, I refused to run the light because people were getting so pissed offso I stopped and that resulted in the split of the group there. Many more splits happened before the ride was over and I think we ended up inabout 5groups about a few minutes apart which wasfor the better.

 

Actually small groups are safer, contrary to popular belief. Case in point. I can't find the picture now, but there was a group of several hundred. A couple of the guys went down in the front and half of the group also wrecked behind them like dominoes. Space it out. I choose life over staying in a pack.

 

My old boyfriend had a harley and was a member of one of the 'couch on two-wheel clubs'. Being a dirt diva, I never could understand the concept of riding in a gaggle of slower than Sun City drivers. I prefer the beauty of the open desert, occasional seeing nature-minded hikers and mountain bikers and then... well, running them off the single-track with my screaming two-stroke YZ! Just kidding guys or am I?